New Mass Effect details revealed at Comic-Con; Mako gets a facelift

Some tidbits on the next Mass Effect game have surfaced from the San Diego Comic-Con during the Bioware panel. The information was sparse, but a couple of noble live-tweeters were on hand to gather up the details.

First off, it’s not Mass Effect 4.

Mandatory disclaimer: all of this is subject to change during the games development.

The Mako is back and in a big way; it’s built for exploration rather than combat and looks to be customisable. Travelling around planets will be a major part of the new game, and Bioware have come to understand “vehicle frustration” from the previous games.

The animation team is “doing stuff [they] couldn’t even dream about before” with the Frostbite 3 engine. It’s also “ingrained in [Bioware]” to give players as much choice as possible. Shepherd won’t be directly involved as it’s a brand new story, and it’s also hinted that it could be set inside a totally different galaxy to before. Multiplayer is also returning, but Bioware seem to still favour cooperative over competitive game modes.

'it's not Mass Effect 4'. Lets be honest, this has to be in the same universe. They are reusing the word 'Mako' for your land-buggy, even placed the word in the slideshow. If it were another universe they would not be using the same name for the vehicle. This has to be the same universe, and from appearance I get the feeling this is after Sheppards time, not before. This judgement however is simply a hunch based off the far more futuristic appearance of the Mako in relation to the previous trilogy. The new looks may just be part of the separation from the trilogy, with BioWare trying to introduce new people into there universe without the feeling that they missed back-story by not playing the previous games.